Hurricane Florence may have been downgraded to a tropical storm, but on Saturday night officials warned that the worst is likely yet to come as ‘epic amounts of rainfall’ continue to fall and floodwaters rise.

‘If you are refusing to leave during this mandatory evacuation, you need to do things like notify your legal next of kin because the loss of life is very, very possible,’ Mitch Colvin, the Mayor of Fayettville, North Carolina said Saturday as the rain-swollen Cape Fear River rose toward record levels.

He added: ‘Please take this seriously. The worst is yet to come, get to higher ground now, once flood waters rise, it will be hard to get to you to rescue.’

The death told had risen to 13 on Sunday night, with 10 dead in North Carolina and three dead in South Carolina, according to officials and media reports.

The North Carolina fatalities included three who died ‘due to flash flooding and swift water on roadways,’ the Duplin County Sheriff’s Office reported.

In Lumberton, quickly rising waters forced the evacuation of a nursing home, with the famous Louisiana Cajun Navy arriving to assist.

The volunteer force of individuals with private boats assisted firefighters in getting the elderly residents to safety.

Members of the Cajun Navy load nursing home patients into the back of a truck as they assist emergency workers with the evacuation of a nursing home due to rising flood waters in Lumberton, North Carolina, on Friday